


Echoes

by Niki



Category: NCIS
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21726673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niki/pseuds/Niki
Summary: The Soulwords depict the moment one's soul is healed - or destroyed.
Relationships: Anthony DiNozzo/Jethro Gibbs
Comments: 16
Kudos: 138





	Echoes

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Sorry for the long absence... I hope someone is still willing to read about these two idiots falling in love! I didn't write at all for a few years due to burn out but I may or may not now have four new NCIS stories in the works. I thought I'd test the waters with this tiny ficlet of a yet another version of the soulmate trope.

Everyone is born with the words on their body. They become legible somewhere around puberty, when you might already have heard them. Tony DiNozzo is one of those who questions the whole point of the words. If you don't know what they mean, what's the use?

You see, there are two kinds of words, and no one knows how they are chosen. The words like irony, too. Hearing ”I love you” can as easily be the moment that destroys your soul as the one that heals it. 

Tony always figured out his words were the healing kind, though. He'd gone through enough pain and rejection by the time he could even read them, that surely there couldn't be anything worse on its way. And the grudging acceptance inherent was the best he could wish for, anyway.

He never expected to hear them from a man who was a shadow of himself, leaving him in charge of his old life. That Gibbs was present in what the stories described as the most important moment of his life wasn't a surprise. But Tony hadn't known he still had that much soul to crush, as when Gibbs looked him in the eyes, half familiar, half a stranger, and said: ”You'll do.”

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Gibbs stared at his word a lot in Mexico. Familiar, when so much was strange. The rage was familiar too. Surely, surely his words should have been about Shannon and Kelly? There couldn't be anything worse on its way. But how could a single word heal his soul from the wounds their loss had created?

The word was familiar, and puzzling, but suddenly while looking at it he started hearing it echo in his head in a voice not his own. He'd heard it, not once, but millions of times, by so many people, it shouldn't have been special. No one time could stand out.

But slowly, slowly, as the words on that growingly familiar voice filled his brain with memories of the years he'd lost, he realised that maybe it was all of them.

“Yes, boss!”

“On your six, boss!”

“I think I screwed up, boss.”

“Here, boss!”

“Sure, boss.”

“Boss!”

“Boss.”

He smiled, amused and healing, and wanted to laugh. 

Of course his word wasn't a single moment of healing, of course his soul took years to get the message. 

Of course it was Tony.

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Here's the thing Tony never realised. You can hear your words more than once. “I love you” could be the thing that destroys you, but also what saves you.

And you could choose to say the words to someone else.

Jethro's eyes were sad when he saw Tony's words for the first time, but then he smiled, cupped his face, and looked him deeply in the eye – no longer a stranger, not one bit of him – and said: “Oh, you'll do just fine.”

The End


End file.
